Anti-rape committee underlines psycho-social support for victims

The Justice J S Verma Committee report on rape laws has, for the first time in the country, underlined the need for psycho-social support for victims, said experts.

| TNN | Jan 25, 2013, 01:23 IST

MUMBAI: The Justice J S Verma Committee report on rape laws has, for the first time in the country, underlined the need for psycho-social support for victims, said experts.
It not only mentions the need for special rooms to ensure privacy of victims during physical and verbal examinations, but also states that counsellors should be involved throughout the intervention process.

The committee's report couldn't have come at a more opportune moment for Maharashtra, where the government is in the process of streamlining its medico-legal response to sexual assault. Justice Verma's report has already recommen-ded the scrapping of the two-finger test as well as the overemphasis on the status of hymen and genital injuries. Sangeeta Rege of CEHAT (Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes) said, "The Maharashtra government should now take a close look at the Verma committee report and make the existing proformas (for victims of sexual assault) gender-sensitive."

Overall, experts across the country were satisfied with the health-related points-both mental and physical-raised in the report. "It goes without saying that the life of the victim is to be preserved before legal formalities are met," the report said. It goes to state that the victim's healthcare needs should be attended to immediately. "Rape has now been recognized as a medico-legal emergency," said forensic expert Jagdeesh Reddy from Bangalore. "No victim can be turned away for want of a police requisition. This applies to public as well as private hospitals."

The Verma report recognizes that rape victims need psychosocial support right in the healthcare setting, especially help from a counsellor. Mumbai-based Padma Deosthali of CEHAT said, "One of the most important points raised by the Verma committee is the need to ensure the psychosocial wellbeing of the victim."

The report's appendix 18 has a number of pages dedicated to the types of psychological trauma that a victim could suffer from.

Rege said, The committee has recommended that doctors have refrain from concluding 'rape' but it has underlined the need for a reasoned medical opinion on the basis of the medical examination and history of the assault from the survivor.''

However, there is one aspect that has public health experts worried. The Verma report states that a board of three doctors should be present during the audio recording of the patient's statement. Finding one doctor is at times difficult in parts of India. It may not be pratically possioble to get three doctors,'' said medico-legal expert Reddy. However, experts added that no woman should turned away for want of three doctors trained in medico-legal expertise.

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